Japan, Into the Mountains and Sea
Move through Japan's cedar-covered mountain shrines, centuries-old craft workshops, and a coastline where the sea has shaped everything — the food, the culture, and the people who tend it.
The Japan Few Travelers Find
Tohoku is the northeastern region of Japan's main island — a landscape of mountain ranges, river valleys, hot spring towns, and a Pacific coastline that has fed the country's finest seafood culture for centuries. Fewer than two percent of American visitors to Japan ever make it here. This trip moves through its interior and along its coast, from the craft workshops and castle grounds outside Sendai, through the mountain onsen of Zao and the weaving ateliers of Yamagata, into the cedar forests where mountain monks have practiced for fourteen hundred years, and ending at a beachside ryokan in the port city of Sakata. The women keeping these traditions alive — brewing sake, running centuries-old restaurants, preserving geisha performance, weaving kimono thread by thread — are the people you will actually meet.
About your trip
Most Japan itineraries are built around the Golden Triangle: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. These are extraordinary cities, and they deserve the attention they get. But they are also among the most visited places on earth, and they offer a particular version of Japan — urban, polished, internationally legible — that leaves the rest of the country largely unseen. This trip goes north instead. We stay entirely in Tohoku, a region that most international travelers skip entirely, and we move slowly enough through it to understand what it actually is: one of Japan's most distinct cultural and agricultural zones, shaped by harsh winters, deep mountain traditions, and a coastal economy built on some of the finest seafood in the country.
The thread running through the nine days is the women who are keeping Tohoku's traditions alive. A sake brewmaster in her twenties who took over her family's centuries-old operation after her father's death. Two sisters who left to study at Michelin three-star restaurants in Kyoto so they could return and run the family's four-generation ryotei. A woman leading agritourism initiatives to sustain the ageing farming communities of the interior. The head of Sakata's geisha house, who has spent decades training performers at a cost most outside the tradition can't fathom. We move between craft workshops, mountain lodges, farm restaurants, and onsen ryokan — each stop in a different setting, each hot spring with a different water quality, from the silky clear baths of the coast to the deeply acidic mineral waters of Zao's mountain crater.
What’s included
A professional photographer documenting the journey so you can stay present
Round-trip airport transfers
All activities listed in the itinerary
Boutique and traditional ryokan accommodations
8 breakfasts, 6 lunches, and 5 dinners
El Camino's exclusive Eat, Play, Shop Guide
An experienced local host with you throughout the trip
Domestic flight from Shonai Airport to Tokyo Haneda on departure day
Not included
International airfare in and out of Japan
Mandatory travel insurance
Incidental expenses
Alcohol except where noted
Tips for drivers, local hosts, and photographers. We will provide suggested amounts.
Travelers must provide evidence that they have purchased travel insurance for the duration of their journey. If you’d like to upgrade to a single room, you can add this during the booking process. If you need assistance please contact our Customer Success team.
Dates & Prices
September 26– October 4, 2026
Shared Room: $7,200
Private Room: $8,300
Itinerary
Flight
☞ Please remember to book separately into Tokyo (HND or NRT)
Day 1
☞ Arrive in Sendai | Welcome Dinner
Day 2
☞ Sendai Castle Grounds | Chopstick-Making Workshop | Onsen in Akiu
Day 3
☞ Shiitake Farm & Shabu Shabu Lunch | Sake Brewery | Onsen in Matsushima Bay
Day 4
☞ Tuna Auction at Shiogama | Sushi Bowl Brunch | Visit Oyster Farm | Zuiganji Temple
Day 5
☞ Mochi & Zunda Making | Matcha Workshop | Free Afternoon in Sendai | Onsen in Zao
Day 6
☞ Mochi Breakfast | Kimono Atelier in Yamagata | Lunch at a Four-Generation Ryotei | Onsen at Mt. Gassan
Day 7
☞ Mountain Monk Experience on Dewa Sanzan | Cedar Forest Hike | Temple Lodge Dinner
Day 8
☞ Morning Ceremony at Dewa Sanzan Shrine | Private Geisha Performance in Sakata | Farewell Kaiseki Dinner
Day 9
☞ Departure from Tokyo (Haneda)
All trips include a professional photographer, so you can stay fully present. Photos from the journey are shared with the group during and after the trip.
More details in the FAQ below.
Your Itinerary
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Arrival in Sendai | Welcome Dinner
いらっしゃいませ! We kick off our journey in Sendai, the largest city in Tohoku and the cultural capital of Japan's northeast. The easiest way to get here from Tokyo is the Tohoku Shinkansen — a ninety-minute bullet train ride north where the dense urban sprawl of Greater Tokyo gradually gives way to the greener, quieter countryside of Miyagi Prefecture. A good first look at the scale of Japan's north.
Sendai is a mid-sized regional capital with wide tree-lined boulevards, a compact downtown, and a deep local pride rooted in the legacy of Date Masamune, the powerful feudal lord who built it. You'll check into a centrally located hotel within walking distance of the city center.
In the early evening we gather for welcome drinks, then make our way to an under-the-radar local restaurant run by a woman chef and her husband, whose kitchen draws directly from the farmers of Miyagi Prefecture. The menu changes with what's in season and who's growing it. This is the first of several meals on this trip where the person who cooked it can tell you exactly where every ingredient came from.
Accomodation: A centrally located hotel in downtown Sendai, well-positioned for the city center and a short walk from the main train station.
Meals Included: Dinner
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Sendai Castle Grounds | Chopstick-Making Workshop | Akiu Onsen
After breakfast, we make a short stop at the former grounds of Aoba Castle on the hill above the city. The castle itself no longer stands, but the grounds remain, anchored by the bronze statue of Date Masamune on horseback overlooking the Sendai skyline. It is a good place to get oriented: this is Miyagi, this is where we are, and this is whose city it was.
From there we drive south to Akiu, a small craft village in the mountains outside Sendai where traditional Japanese artisans have worked for generations. We'll spend time at a workshop where you'll cut and lacquer your own chopsticks from raw wood — a skill that takes years to master but whose fundamentals you can learn in an afternoon. The chopsticks you make here will travel with you for the rest of the trip.
We check into our first ryokan in the onsen town of Akiu. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn organized around hospitality as a formal practice — the room, the meal, the bath, and the service follow conventions that have been refined over centuries. The baths here draw from a clear, silky spring water that leaves the skin noticeably smooth. The evening is yours — soak, wander the town, and settle in. Dinner will be served at the ryokan.
Accommodation: An onsen ryokan — a traditional Japanese inn with tatami rooms, communal hot spring baths fed by clear mineral water
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
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Shiitake Farm & Shabu Shabu Lunch | Sake Brewery | Matsushima Bay Onsen
We head north into the farming country above Sendai, where the shiitake mushrooms are still grown the old way — on aged logs, in the shade of the forest, a method that represents less than ten percent of commercial production in Japan today. The difference in flavor is not subtle. You'll pick your own before sitting down to a shabu shabu lunch at the farm restaurant next door, run by the same woman who tends the fields — someone who has spent years working to keep this ageing agricultural community alive and producing.
After lunch we drive to a sake brewery that has been operating on the same site for centuries, fed by a mountain waterfall whose spring water hasn't changed. The brewmaster who runs it today is a woman in her twenties who took over after her father's sudden death and stayed. There are very few female brewmasters in Japan. We'll tour the brewery and end with a tasting.
We arrive at our ryokan on the shores of Matsushima Bay in the late afternoon. The evening is yours — the town's waterfront restaurants are the right place to try Miyagi oysters, among the most celebrated on Japan's coast, with a glass of local sake alongside them.
Accommodation: An onsen ryokan on Matsushima Bay
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
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Tuna Auction at Shiogama | Sushi Bowl Brunch | Oyster Farm Visit | Zuiganji Temple
We leave early for the port city of Shiogama, just north of Sendai, where one of Japan's largest tuna auction houses opens before dawn. From the viewing platform above the auction floor, we watch the process — the rows of frozen tuna, the buyers moving quickly with their flashlights, the auctioneer's rapid-fire cadence. It is a specific and serious world, operating at a pace that makes clear how much commerce and expertise flows through this coastline every morning before most people are awake.
From the auction we walk to the adjacent wholesale fish market, where the range of what the Miyagi coast produces is on full display. We'll buy our own selection of sashimi and build a sushi bowl brunch together — a meal that tastes completely different when the fish came off a boat a few hours earlier.
The afternoon is on the water. We board a private boat and move through Matsushima Bay — a landscape of over 260 small pine-covered islands that has been considered one of Japan's three most scenic views for centuries. We stop at an oyster farm to understand how the bay's famous shellfish are cultivated, with the local fishermen who tend them.
The rest of the afternoon is yours to explore on foot. Zuiganji Temple, one of the finest Zen temples in the Tohoku region, sits at the edge of the bay — its cedar-lined approach and carved cave hermitages built during the same period that Date Masamune was consolidating his power across this coastline.
Dinner is free choice; your host will have suggestions, and the Eat, Play, Shop Guide covers this area in detail.
Accommodation: Second night at the ryokan on Matsushima Bay.
Meals Included: Breakfast and Brunch
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Mochi Pounding & Zunda Making | Matcha Workshop | Free Afternoon in Sendai | Zao Onsen
Back in Sendai for the morning, we spend time with two of the city's most specific food traditions. The first is mochi and zunda — pounded rice cake and the bright green edamame paste that Sendai has made its own. A woman-owned company leads this experience, teaching the full process of making both from scratch. Zunda is specific to this region in a way that even most Japanese people outside Tohoku don't fully appreciate.
From there we walk to a matcha shop that has been operating for three hundred years, now run by the daughter who has taken over from the generation before her. This is not a standard tea ceremony — it's a working teaching session focused on the different grades, growing conditions, and preparation methods of matcha, led by someone who has spent her life understanding it.
The afternoon is yours in Sendai — the city's long covered arcade streets are worth wandering for shopping, local craft goods, and the kind of department store floors that Japanese cities do better than anywhere else. This is also a good opportunity to try gyutan, the grilled beef tongue that Sendai is famous for, at one of the many small restaurants tucked into the city's side streets. Tap into your Eat, Play, Shop Guide for where to go.
In the late afternoon we drive to Zao Onsen, a small mountain hot spring town nestled in the crater country above Yamagata. The water here has a milky, cloudy quality — its high mineral content gives it a color and texture entirely different from the clear baths of Akiu, and it is deeply cleansing. The evening is yours to explore the town and have dinner on your own. Your host will have recommendations.
Accommodation: An onsen ryokan in the mountain town of Zao
Meals Included: Breakfast
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Mochi Breakfast | Kimono Atelier | Lunch at a Four-Generation Ryotei | Mt. Gassan Onsen
We leave Zao early and stop for breakfast at a small mountain shop that specializes in a local variety of mochi you won't find in Tokyo — made by a method that runs out by mid-morning and belongs entirely to this part of the country.
In Yamagata City we visit the atelier of Tomohiro, a kimono maker with five hundred years of history behind it. The female artisans here handle every stage of production themselves — raising the silkworms, designing the pattern, gathering wild plants for the natural dyes, and weaving each thread on traditional looms. We'll see them at work and make our own coasters or dye our own handkerchiefs alongside them.
Lunch is at a ryotei — a formal traditional Japanese restaurant that serves special occasions — run by two sisters whose father, the head chef, died suddenly seven years ago. Rather than close the four-generation family business, the daughters left for Kyoto to train at Michelin three-star restaurants: one in management, one in cooking. They've since returned to Yamagata and run the establishment alongside their mother. Lunch is centered around a rice-making workshop using Tsuyahime rice, Yamagata's most celebrated variety, followed by a meal built around what you've just prepared.
In the afternoon we check into our lodge on the slopes of Mt. Gassan — a mountain property by a lake, deep in forested nature, with onsen baths and trails through the surrounding forest if you want to use the remaining daylight. Dinner is a local mountain cuisine meal at the lodge.
Accommodation: A mountain lodge on the slopes of Mt. Gassan — a lakeside property deep in forested nature with onsen baths
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
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Dewa Sanzan Mountain Monk Experience | Cedar Forest Hike | Temple Lodge
The Dewa Sanzan are three sacred mountains that have been a site of Shugendo — a Japanese spiritual practice that combines Buddhism, Shinto, and mountain asceticism — for over fourteen hundred years. Pilgrims have been climbing these mountains in white robes since the seventh century. Today we dress as they do and make the ascent up Mt. Haguro with the yamabushi monks who still practice here, moving through a cedar forest of trees that have been standing for centuries.
The hike itself is not technically demanding, but it is deliberate — stone steps, old forest, the sound of the mountain. Along the way the monks will introduce us to shojin ryori, the plant-based mountain cuisine that has been practiced here for fourteen hundred years, developed from the foraged ingredients of these slopes. We'll harvest wild mountain vegetables on the ascent and bring them back to cook together before lunch.
The afternoon is free time on the shrine grounds and in the forest surrounding the summit — the kind of place where it becomes obvious why people have been coming here for a thousand years. Dinner is at the Saikan temple lodge, where we spend the night.
A note on the facilities here: staying at a mountain temple lodge is a genuinely rare experience, and part of what makes it special is its simplicity. The bathing facilities are basic — one shared unit, gender-separated. Travelers should feel comfortable with simple, communal arrangements to make the most of this night.
Accommodation: A temple lodge on Mt. Haguro, within the Dewa Sanzan shrine grounds, with traditional rooms and communal bathing in the mountain setting. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE CANNOT GUARANTEE PRIVATE ROOMS HERE, GIVEN THE LOCATION AND SETTING.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
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Morning Ceremony at Dewa Sanzan Shrine | Travel to Sakata | Private Geisha Performance | Farewell Kaiseki Dinner
We rise early for the morning ceremony at the Dewa Sanzan shrine — a ritual that has been conducted here every morning without interruption for centuries. It is short and quiet and entirely unlike anything arranged for visitors.
After breakfast we check out and make our way to Sakata, a port city on the Sea of Japan coast that has been an important cultural and commercial hub since the Edo period. We kick off the day at the city's historic geisha house — an art form kept alive here by a woman who has dedicated decades of her life to preserving it outside of Kyoto, where the infrastructure and tourism economy make that work far easier. A single kimono costs over ten thousand dollars. The training takes two years of daily practice before a performer appears in front of anyone. We'll spend time with the woman who runs it, hear what it has taken to keep this going, and watch a performance arranged specifically for our group.
After the performance, we sit down to Sakata ramen — a local specialty built on a clear flying-fish broth with thin white noodles and hand-cut wonton made fresh each morning. From there we check into our final ryokan, a beachside property on the Sea of Japan with natural hot spring baths and views of the water.
The farewell dinner is a kaiseki meal at the ryokan: multiple courses of seasonal ingredients alongside a sushi-making session for those who want to try their hand, and the chance to taste tiger pufferfish prepared by one of the region's finest chefs. It is the right dinner for a last evening together.
Accommodations: A beachside ryokan on the Sea of Japan with natural hot spring baths and ocean views
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
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Departure
After breakfast, your transfer to Shonai Airport will be arranged. We fly back to Tokyo Haneda together as a group — flights from Shonai are limited, so this is the most reliable way to ensure everyone makes their international connections. As you depart Tohoku, you'll carry with you the taste of the mountain water at each stop, the hands of the women who kept these crafts alive, and the quiet of a part of Japan that most travelers never find.
Meals Included: Breakfast
Important Notes
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Our small group trips are intentionally designed for a specific kind of traveler. Before booking, all travelers must read and agree to our Traveler Values.
You are open-minded, curious, and present—more interested in the moment than perfection.
You enjoy stepping outside your comfort zone and are excited to engage with cultures different from your own.
You've read the full itinerary, understand the travel style and accommodations, and feel comfortable with what's outlined.
You recognize that you're visiting places where daily rhythms may differ from home, and you approach those differences with patience and respect.
You understand that travel can be unpredictable, and that last-minute changes due to weather, logistics, or local circumstances are sometimes unavoidable.
You're adaptable, easy-going, and able to roll with changes—knowing that some of the best moments come from the unexpected.
You know you can opt out of any activity at any time, and will communicate openly with your guide when you do.
If concerns arise, you're willing to raise them directly with your local host or the El Camino team so we can address them proactively.
You value inclusivity and are excited to travel alongside people from different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
You show up with generosity—toward fellow travelers, local partners, and the places we're privileged to visit.
Our trips are rooted in responsible tourism, mutual respect, and shared experience. Agreeing to these values helps ensure a positive, connected journey for everyone involved.
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Most Japan itineraries are built around Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka — cities that are extraordinary in their own right and absolutely worth visiting. This trip goes somewhere different. Fewer than two percent of American visitors ever make it to Tohoku, and the access we have here comes from years of on-the-ground relationship building with the people who call this region home. A sake brewmaster in her twenties who took over her family's centuries-old operation after her father's death. A geisha house preserving a tradition that has never needed to perform itself for tourists. A four-generation family restaurant that sent its daughters to Kyoto to train and brought them home to keep it alive. These are the people you will actually meet.
This is a trip for the traveler who wants to be among the first — discovering a region with deep, rich local culture that hasn't been shaped by mass tourism, moving through some of Japan's most distinct landscapes, and ending each day in a different onsen with a different water quality in a completely different setting. From the silky clear baths of the coast to the milky mineral waters of a mountain crater, the onsen culture here is as varied and layered as everything else about Tohoku.
The group is small — never more than 14 travelers — and the host is with you throughout, not just during organized activities. Dinner reservations are arranged in advance for free evenings so that the recommendation is a real one, not a name from a list.
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All our small group trips include a professional photographer.
This isn’t about content creation or social media—it’s about presence. Having a photographer allows travelers to fully experience a place and the people they meet, without feeling pressure to document every moment themselves.
The photographers we work with are highly respected professionals who know how to move quietly, capture real moments, and tell the story of a journey with sensitivity and care.
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You will fly into Tokyo — either Haneda Airport (HND) or Narita International Airport (NRT). The easiest way to get to Sendai from Tokyo is the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train, a ninety-minute ride north. We'll provide all travelers with guidance on how to book and navigate this on their own before departure. On the final day, we fly back to Tokyo Haneda together as a group so that everyone can catch their international flights. If you are planning to continue traveling in Japan after the trip, we suggest booking your international departure out of Haneda — it puts you in central Tokyo within twenty minutes by train.
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We recommend travelers arrive at the hotel in Sendai no later than 3PM on Day 1, giving you time to check in and settle before the group gathers for welcome drinks. You departure flight should be after 3PM if you are flying out of Haneda.
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This itinerary is designed for the traveler who wants to understand Japan through the people who are keeping its oldest practices alive — the brewmasters, weavers, farmers, chefs, and performers who are doing that work right now, in a part of the country most visitors never reach.
If you're drawn to craft, food culture, and the specific texture of a place that hasn't been designed for tourism — and you want a trip that goes far beyond what a guidebook covers — this is the right trip.
This trip is ideal if you:
are genuinely curious about Japanese craft, food, and cultural tradition as living practices
want to meet the people behind the work — not watch a demonstration, but have a real conversation
appreciate a mix of structured experiences and free time to explore independently
are comfortable with a trip that moves through multiple settings — coastal towns, mountain villages, shrine lodges — over nine days
prefer character-forward ryokan and traditional properties over large hotel chains
value intimate group travel with access that independent travelers rarely get
are interested in the specific experience of onsen culture — different waters, different settings, over the course of a week
like meaningful encounters over curated performances
This trip is also well suited for solo travelers who want to experience Japan beyond the tourist trail with a small group of like-minded people.
If you're looking for a Japan trip centered on Tokyo, Kyoto, the bullet train corridor, or the classic temples and neon-lit streets — this is not that trip. This itinerary goes deep into a region most international travelers never visit, at a pace designed for understanding rather than coverage.
Please review our Traveler Values prior to booking.
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We are not a luxury travel company, but we're far from budget. In Tohoku, "high–low" becomes mountain lodge and private ryokan kaiseki dinner.
We believe the richest understanding of a place comes from contrasts:
a tuna auction at dawn in a working fish market, and a private boat on the bay that afternoon,
a shabu shabu lunch at a farm restaurant in an ageing rural community, and a multi-course dinner at a four-generation ryotei in the evening,
dressing in white mountain robes to hike with Shugendo monks, and soaking in a hot spring under the stars that night,
a twenty-dollar beef tongue lunch on a side street in Sendai, and a farewell kaiseki dinner at a beachside ryokan on the Sea of Japan.
In Tohoku, craft and tradition aren't highlights of the trip — they're the lens through which everything else is understood.
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Standard pricing is based on shared double rooms. This allows us to offer high-quality boutique stays while keeping the trip accessible.
Traveling with a friend, partner, or family member? We'll room you together.
Traveling solo? Most of our travelers do. Before departure, we'll learn about your preferences and match you with a compatible roommate. We're always happy to talk through any concerns.
Single room upgrades are available in most locations. If they sell out at checkout, email us at info@elcamino.travel and we'll see what additional options exist. Note that single supplements at traditional ryokan properties are higher than at standard hotels — ryokan pricing is structured around the full experience of the room, regardless of occupancy.
Here's what to expect across the itinerary:
Sendai (Night 1) — a centrally located hotel in the city center, well-positioned for the downtown and the train station
Akiu Onsen (Night 2) — a traditional ryokan with tatami rooms and hot spring baths fed by clear mineral water
Matsushima Bay (Nights 3–4) — a property on the water with bay views and onsen baths
Zao Onsen (Night 5) — a mountain ryokan with private bookable baths and the crater's highly acidic mineral water
Mt. Gassan (Night 6) — a lakeside mountain lodge deep in forested nature with onsen access
Dewa Sanzan — Saikan temple lodge (Night 7) — a traditional mountain lodge within the shrine grounds
Sakata (Night 8) — a beachside ryokan on the Sea of Japan with natural hot spring baths and a kaiseki kitchen
All properties meet the El Camino standard: clean, safe, aesthetically considered, and chosen for experience over excess.
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No more than 14 travelers, 1 ECT host, and 1 photographer.
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We work with a roster of well-qualified local hosts. Prior to your trip, you’ll receive a welcome packet with information about who will be guiding your journey. We work with local hosts because no one is better equipped to provide layer upon layer of context than someone who is actually from here.
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A non-refundable deposit of 30% of the total trip cost is due at booking. The remaining balance is due 90 days prior to departure.
Please read our Booking Terms and Conditions for more information about our cancellation policy. -
Our Japan itinerary is moderately active, with experiences that take you through mountain shrine grounds, cedar forests, farm fields, craft workshops, and coastal fish markets. Much of what makes this trip special is experienced on foot and in motion. The most significant physical day is Day 7 — the ascent of Mt. Haguro involves a long stone staircase through cedar forest. It is not technically difficult, but it requires comfortable footwear and the ability to walk at a steady pace for an extended period.
Travelers should be comfortable with:
walking up to 3–4 miles per day on a mix of city streets, stone steps, and mountain terrain
the Mt. Haguro staircase ascent — several hundred stone steps through forest, at altitude
extended time on foot during fish market visits, craft workshops, and temple grounds
standing for extended periods during farm visits, sake tastings, and cooking experiences
navigating the traditional low furniture and floor seating of ryokan dining rooms
This is not a physically strenuous trip, but it is immersive.
If you have concerns about the activity level, recent surgeries, or mobility issues, please reach out to us at info@elcamino.travel before booking so we can ensure the trip is a good fit.
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Onsen — natural hot spring baths — are one of the defining experiences of this trip. We visit a different onsen at nearly every stop, each with water of a different mineral composition and character: the clear, silky water of Akiu; the sulfur-rich acidic water of Zao; the coastal spring at our final ryokan on the Sea of Japan.
A few things to know before you go:
Onsen are typically gender-separated and communal. You bathe without a swimsuit — this is standard practice and the correct way to use them. Towels are not worn in the water.
You wash thoroughly at the individual shower stations before entering the communal bath. This is not optional — it is the practice, and it is observed by everyone.
At Zao Onsen, the ryokan has three private baths that can be booked in advance, in addition to the communal baths. These are a good option for anyone who prefers a private experience, or for couples traveling together.
At the Saikan temple lodge on Mt. Haguro, the bathing facility is shared and gender-separated, with arrangements available for private thirty-minute time slots. Your host will coordinate this in advance.
Tattoo policies vary by property. In Tohoku, enforcement is generally relaxed compared to the south of Japan — small tattoos are unlikely to cause any issue. Large or full-body tattoos may be a concern at some properties; if this applies to you, please reach out to us before booking and we'll confirm the policy at each stop.
Your host will walk through onsen etiquette with the group before the first visit. You will not be left to figure this out alone.